An Authentic, Sometimes Gritty, and Always Hopeful Blog for All Who Live with Severe Physical Pain

Thursday, February 23, 2012

What Whitney Didn't Know

Whitney
Houston’s amazing vocal gift has gone silent. It was discovered and grown
inside her church where she also found Christ, her savior. Now, as the pundits gather
like vultures to pick apart what lead to her undoing, theirs will be so many
wasted vowels and consonants, as the unraveling of Whitney’s life is no great mystery.

Whitney
knew Christ. But, she didn’t know, or
she forgot who she was IN Christ.

Kevin
Costner, her co-star in the movie that promoted her to stardom, “The Bodyguard”
hinted eloquently and lovingly to this during her funeral, as he talked about
how Whitney struggled with feeling good about herself.

He
told the story of when he asked her to try out for the role “Rachel Marron” in
the 1992 movie. Whitney thought of a hundred reasons why she wasn’t qualified, but Costner convinced her to come in
for a screen test anyway. When they started rolling the film, however, after
just a few minutes, he stopped the test, and turned off the lights. He asked
Whitney to go back to the prep room with him.

“What
did I do wrong?” she cried. “Was it that bad?”

Rather
than answering her, he slowly turned her around so she could see herself in the
mirror. When she did, she saw that all her make-up had melted and was running
down her face.

Costner
explained that Whitney had not been comfortable that the make-up that had been
applied to her face for the screen test was sufficient. So she had taken it off
and put on her concert performance make-up because it was thicker and more
glamorous. She had been afraid she didn’t look pretty enough in the other
make-up. Of course, she didn’t know that the lights used in movie sets were
that much warmer than performance lighting. Said Costner:

“Whitney always
wondered, ‘Am I good enough?” ‘Am I pretty enough?’ Will they like me?’ It was
the burden that made her great and the part that caused her to stumble in the
end."

“Whitney, if you could hear me
now… You weren’t just good enough, you were great. You sang the whole damn song without a band.
You weren’t just pretty; you were as beautiful as a woman could be. People
didn’t just like you, they loved you.”

Yes,
Whitney was good enough, pretty enough, and everyone fell in love with
her. After “The Bodyguard” was released,
thousands of young women wanted to look and sing just like her. And Whitney was
just about to star in a new movie, “Sparkle”--a comeback seemed to be on the
horizon for her.

But
it didn’t matter. Because Whitney
suffered so deeply, that nothing, and no one, could fill it. Only when we know
who we are IN Christ can we be filled up.

It’s
not just a burden of the famous. It is a burden of us all. John Piper, an author whom I turn to for my
personal bible study, says that one of the reasons we don’t know who we are in
Christ is that our thirst for God is so small.

He
nails it on the head. You and Whitney,
and I…we who are Christians*, have a choice when our suffering is so deep that it
wants to define us. Whether it is
physical, mental or emotional suffering, we have a choice. We can EITHER
medicate the pain, look for answers in self-help programs, turn on Dr. Phil,
talk and talk and talk about it, give up entirely. OR we can decide this is the time to
figure out who we are IN Christ and live like a dying-of-thirst person whose
only drink is God..

Who We Are In Christ:

·We are God’s children. (John 1:12)

·We have been justified. (Romans 5:1)

·We belong to God (1 Corinthians 6:20)

·We are assured that everything happens
for a reason. (Romans 8:28)

·We have been established, anointed and
sealed by God. (2 Corinthians 1: 21-22)

·We are confident of Heaven (Philippians
3:20)

·We are born of God and the evil one
cannot touch us. (1 John 5:18)

·We were chosen before the creation of
the world (Ephesians 1:4; 11)

·We are forgiven (Ephesians 1:9;
Colossians 1:14)

·We have a purpose (Ephesians 1:12)

·We can overcome a spirit of fear, and
own one of power, love and discipline
. (2 Timothy 1:7)

·We can do all things through Christ who
gives us strength. (Philippians 4:13)

I am writing this blog for myself as
much as for anyone else. I need to remember who I am IN Christ regularly. I must
remember that am NOT defined by my pain; by my limitations of energy,
short-term memory, or my inability to do things I used to do. Instead, I am defined by who I am IN
Christ.

Blessings and prayers for all of
you, and to Whitney’s family and friends.

Judi

P.S. Confused or apathetic about this whole "Christian" thing? Maybe some of my posts will shed new light for you. Check out posts under the following labels: “My faith”, “salvation”, “Light of Jesus”

4 comments:

Judi, This is a great post, the best I have read or heard so far concerning Whitney Houston and it strike to the core of what we Christians suffer with the most. Our understanding of, who God is, who we are in Him is foundational to our walk here on this earth. Without it we are rendered helpless before an enemey who seeks to destroy our testemony and even our life.

A core belief is defined as: A firmly held conviction that consistently motivates our behavior.

Our core beliefs are demonstrated not by what we say but how we live them out.

Many of our core beliefs change over time as we learn and grow, often evidenced in new and Godly ways of relating to God and others. Roman 12:2

These are from a workshop we attended recently called, Sharpening Your Intropersonel Skills.

Thank you for commenting, Betty. I do not consider myself to be wise, but being humbled over and over by life! Your words are true--our core beliefs show themselves in how we live...and that is the hardest thing, isn't it!

So, when it comes to pain, I can only bear this on-going agony when I believe and live as though I know that Christ is in control and "has my back". Otherwise, I would likely have given up long ago.